in the 85 to 89 bracket, 80% of the people in them are bots. in isle of conquest you are guaranteed to see 30+ people following each other around doing nothing. it is seriously terrible every bg end's up becoming a 4 v 2 or 1 v 4 or something. and don't even mention the bots that farm mobs in vale of eternal blossoms for sky shards. there is like 10 bots at the ghost mogu camp. 24\7

they ban, but they only give bg botters 24,48,72 hour bans the first couple of times. if you check out certain forums on the interwebz you'll see how many people manage to turn their permabans around to 72 hours or less just by claiming they had no idea they looked like botters, or by claiming they've been "hacked". it's stupid really. if they started permabanning botters for real you'd see a lot less within a few weeks.

Agree with this.
And I honestly don't believe Blizzard would lose any money by permabanning botters, they could even just do it like this: 3days ban first, with a note saying -" you will now be watched, and if we catch you again you'll get perma-banned."
I bet that would keep alot of people away from botting.
But then again, there is this problem with those that actuallt get hacked and those that play "mindless" (My GM actually thought I was botting, because when he spoke to me in /g I never replied. When all I was doing was slacking in BGs and watching movies.. :P)
The problem with hacked accounts should be easly figured out - Just check what IP adress the game was played on last, and then compare it to the other IP adresses used by this account, I'm sure that's possible? Gmail is doing it atleast.
The "mindless playing" problem on the other hand is more severe, maybe add a BLING sound when a GM wispers you (A sound that pops up even if you got sound disabled)

Hahaha...why would blizz even want to do anything about bots when anyone who complains is immediately pounced upon by 10 that think this is asking too much and blizz is great.

Sadly this mentality is that which is accepted on the forums. And until people stop and start demanding consequences and the like for those who are unfairly gaining the upperhand in a game that we pay to play, it will keep on keeping on.
Even less fortunate is the fact that a lot of players have some type of mild addiction whereby they will continue to pay even if they don't play very much at all because of the aforementioned problem.

You must be a complete idiot....I bot and know quite a few from around the states who continue to bot..purchasing with there own money and credit cards
Yes, some botters use stolen credit cards, Most known area is Over seas a.k.a EUROPE..people who bot do One of the Two. Some bot to make Income and some bot to save there time from the grind..The only ones who get caught are the ones who either...do it 24/7 non-stop and get attention from the wrong people

Been botting for 4-5 years....don't plan to stop anytime soon
known motto for botters is "Don't bot on something you don't want to lose" since there are Risks...it's been unlikely for a long time

Bot creators..don't make a whole lot...especially the ones who offer Life time subscriptions

I hope they catch you and i hope they ban you. People who use bots are players who we do not want in the game. Go play something that requires no effort if you cannot legitimately put the time into the game. It'll save you money.

in the 85 to 89 bracket, 80% of the people in them are bots. in isle of conquest you are guaranteed to see 30+ people following each other around doing nothing. it is seriously terrible every bg end's up becoming a 4 v 2 or 1 v 4 or something. and don't even mention the bots that farm mobs in vale of eternal blossoms for sky shards. there is like 10 bots at the ghost mogu camp. 24\7

The people who does not attack are stupid. I've used and seen bots in top 5 dmg in bgs.

---------- Post added 2012-12-10 at 12:48 PM ----------

Originally Posted by StaeleAilar

I hope they catch you and i hope they ban you. People who use bots are players who we do not want in the game. Go play something that requires no effort if you cannot legitimately put the time into the game. It'll save you money.

The people who does not attack are stupid. I've used and seen bots in top 5 dmg in bgs.

My moonkin bot was in top 3 every game when he got geared a bit. Actually i watched over it sometimes and was surprised how it actually defend nodes when real deal players run away not giving a bit of a care about flag. Hilarious but some bot profiles are better then your average wow player.

1 - Observe the bots to work out how they work
2 - Make changes behind the scenes to break the bots.
3 - Test to make sure the changes break the bots.
4 - make the changes go live
5 - Ban the players using the bots in a single wave.
6 - Repeat the process all over again.

Now all of this takes time. A LOT of time. it doesn't just happen over night.

Exactly... THat's what we're hearing since the last few years and nothing has changed. By the time blizzard has banned botWare 1.0, botWare 2.0 is already available for use. Do you really think bot software developers are doing nothing? They know how blizz works and are developing new ways to bot while their current software is up and running. Unless they start instant banning bots when they find them there won't be any reduction in the amount of botting.

Originally Posted by Blackeyecycle

I have good reason to believe that the vast majority of WoW players couldn't identify a bot.

Yep, seeing a horde of 20 players following a single player who is running circles to mess with them means they are not bots

I'm not a scientist but i think blizzard is currently working on shutting down honorbuddy and various other bots instead of just playing the short term ban everyone they see using it sort of thing, trust me im a scientist.

Exactly... THat's what we're hearing since the last few years and nothing has changed. By the time blizzard has banned botWare 1.0, botWare 2.0 is already available for use. Do you really think bot software developers are doing nothing? They know how blizz works and are developing new ways to bot while their current software is up and running. Unless they start instant banning bots when they find them there won't be any reduction in the amount of botting.

The people who are developing the "botWare" will always be a step ahead of Blizzard because they can change their coding a lot faster. Botting will never be stopped, bot will become more like actual people. I've seen bots move in somewhat random paths and actually fight.

How can bots be banned without being an annoyance to legitimate players or be easily exploited to get real players banned?

To all the people saying, "you don't know if they are bots", yes I can tell. How?

Go do Isle of Conquest, you can see all of them group up exactly on top of eachother. Have a lock drop a healthstone. When 20 people instantly follow the exact same path to pick up a stone, then follow the exact same patch back to where they were before. They are bots.

The thing with the bot problem is as others have stated before. The bot program developers are constantly changing their coding. Think of it as an anti virus software.....How do they come up with the solution to a virus? Well the virus has to be generated and released to wreak havok before an appropriate fix can be generated. Basically by the time the bot coding is figured out and how to stop it......they just patch the bot program and BOOM....whole new lines of coding to figure out. They may figure it out, but everything takes time. Yeah it's frustrating to have bots on your team, but if they are on the other team.....who doesn't like free honor kills?

My moonkin bot was in top 3 every game when he got geared a bit. Actually i watched over it sometimes and was surprised how it actually defend nodes when real deal players run away not giving a bit of a care about flag. Hilarious but some bot profiles are better then your average wow player.

To all the people saying, "you don't know if they are bots", yes I can tell. How?

Go do Isle of Conquest, you can see all of them group up exactly on top of eachother. Have a lock drop a healthstone. When 20 people instantly follow the exact same path to pick up a stone, then follow the exact same patch back to where they were before. They are bots.